
Glass _ 
Book 






THE 



JAMAICA PETITION 



FOR 



REPRESENTATION 



IN THE 



British House of Commons, 



OR FOR 



INDEPENDENCE, 



BY 

AUGUSTUS H. BEAUMONT, 

A Member of the Jamaica Assembly. 
1831. 



Fisu 



EDMUND H. BEUJMOXT, 

IBvinUv, 

st. Michael's alley, corxhill. 



/■; 



/^- &£,?> 



i To the Honorable the Commons of the United Kingdom 
of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament 
assembled. 



THE HUMBLE 

PETITION 

OF 



AUGUSTUS HARDIN BEAUMONT, 

A Member in the Jamaica Legislative Assembly, 



Sheweth, 

That the project of legislating for the British West 
Indian Islands, entertained by your Honourable House, 
will tend to retard the progress of human amelioration. 

The undersigned offers to prove to your Honourable 
House, that the British Parliament ought not in reason 
to have, and that in fact it has not the power, to bind by 
its laws the Island of Jamaica ; (respecting which, and 
the constitution of its society, your Honourable House 
can have only hearsay knowledge ;) and that your Ho- 
nourable House, by its interference, may in probability 
provoke mischief, but cannot in possibility effect good. 

Before a reasoning and deliberating Legislature pro- 
ceeds to pass any laws, particularly such as involve any 
interference with an unknown, unrepresented country, 
it should attentively ascertain three things : — 



First. -The right of intervention. 

Secondly. — The power to intervene at all. 

Thirdly. — The possession of sufficient ability to in- 
tervene, so as to promote the good of the people; that 
is, the greatest happiness of the greatest number. 

Now first, of the right of the British Parliament to in- 
terfere with that of Jamaica. 

On what principle is built the claim of the people of 
England to legislate for the people of Jamaica ? Is the 
claim one of reason or force. In either case the people 
of Jamaica are ready to argue the question. 

Considering Parliament as the collective wisdom of the 
British Nation, the people of Jamaica have a right to 
presume that the claim you set up to make laws for them, 
is founded on reason, and not on brute force. Let then 
the claim of right be examined, with reference to the 
condition of the usurping and resisting parties. 

This is their relative position — a people have existed 
many ages in one particular Island, and been supposed 
to legislate by their own representatives for their own 
regulation. A portion of these people emigrate to a dis- 
tant Island, and by their own labour render it productive. 

Does the portion which emigrates become the subjects 
of that which remains behind ? Is the County of Corn- 
wall subject to the County of Kent? 

Is it replied that a mother country has a right to make 
laws for her descendents ? Then Saxony and Normandy 
ought to legislate for England, Brittany for Scotland, 
and the refusal to obey is contumacy and contumacious 
resistance. 

The absurdity of the proposition, that one state is to 
legislate for another because it is the parent state, and 
that the resistance of the second to the mandates of the 
first, is contumacy deserving punishment, becomes appa- 
rent, bv the mere enunciation. 



This supposed right of the mother country to ruake: 
laws for its Colonies, is like most other fallacies of very 
antient origin. Two thousand five hundred years ago we 
find the following remark made upon a similar dispute 
between the Corcyreans and Corinthians, the Colony and 
parent country, when application was made by the daugh- 
ter to a neighbouring republic, to aid her in resisting the 
aggressions of her mother, and the fallacy of allegiance and 
duty, and contumacy, having been invoked, it was replied, 
" learn that every Colony having no reason of complaint 
u honours the mother country ; but when wronged, is 
" alienated, for they were sent forth not to be slaves, 
u but the equals of those who stay behind." - paShao-M 

u<; woLo-u, aMifmiob ev y\v iroca-y.ova-oc Tt/xa t^v />cr,T£07roAn', tz^xovpivy} 
at aAAoTgiQurott* °v y&£ £77* tco do2Aoi <z>\\ iiri tw opoloi tqI$ Ast7ro- 
[A£Pol$ fiifat £X3rs//,7roi>Tat. 

It would appear as if mankind were never to advance 
in political knowledge, but that the fallacies of 2,500 
years ago were again to be employed — again exposed — ■ 
again refuted — and their consequences again resisted. 

Evidently then,, the principle of intervention by the one 
Island in the internal affairs of the other, is not founded 
in reason. 

But it is contended that the emigrated part of the 
nation is ignorant of legislation, and unjust to the mem- 
bers of its society ; and that therefore, the unemigratecl 
part of the nation has a right to interfere. 

Then the principle of interference between the emi- 
grated and unemigrated parts of the nation is this, — that 
in the part where an aptitude for government is shewn, a 
right is created to legislate for that part where this apti- 
tude is not shewn. 

Admitting that this principle of intervention is just, let 
reason decide which part of the nation ought to legislate 
for the other. 



One of the parts of the nation robs a foreign land, kid- 
knaps her inhabitants, and compels the other part under 
heavy penalties, and in contempt of its repeated re- 
monstrances, to receive the stolen men as slaves. The 
part of the nation forced to participate in this atrocity, 
receives these stolen men in the condition of savages ; it 
civilizes them — it raises up to take their stand amongst 
fellow men, those whom the other part of the nation had 
degraded to the condition of beasts. 

At the time the legislators of one part of the nation, 
receiving savages, are making of them civilised men, the 
law-givers of the other part, having received a highly 
civilised race under their care, are employed in passing 
Acts for the better preservation of Hares and Foxes ; and 
of a brave, independent, noble, generous labouring peo- 
ple, they have made a race of miserable discontented 
paupers. 

Then, one part of the nation cannot legislate, the other 
can. In reason and modesty, which part should legislate 
for the whole ? 

The position thus stated is not fictitious ; things done 
and laws enacted — records of trials and proceedings of 
courts of justice — former history, and existing communi- 
ties, all bear witness to its accuracy. 

" Previous to the existence of any of the West India 
Colonies, England commenced the slave trade. This 
traffic was established in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
who formally had a share in it. Her successors encou- 
raged it by every possible means; and King William III. 
(by Lord Somers, his minister) declared that the slave 
trade was " highly beneficial to the nation." Numerous 
Acts of Parliament, from the reign of King William till 
within a few years of the Slave Trade Abolition Laws, 
are to be found in the Statute Book of the British Parlia- 
ment, encouraging and fostering this traffic ; and when, 



in 1760, South Carolina (then a British Colony) passed 
a law, prohibitory of further importations of slaves into 
that dependency, Great Britain indignantly rejected the 
Act, and declared that the slave trade was beneficial and 
necessary to the mother country; the Governor who 
sanctioned the Prohibitory Act, was reprimanded ; and 
a circular was sent to all other Governors, warning them 
against a similar offence, which however was repeated in 
1765, and Jamaica stood forward as the advocate of the 
black men. A Bill brought in on the petition of the inha- 
bitants of that Island, was twice read in their Legislative 
Assembly, for the purpose of limiting the importation of 
slaves, when the measure was frustrated by Great Britain, 
through the Governor, who sent for its Assembly, and 
told them that, consistently with his instructions, he 
could not give his assent ; therefore the Bill was dropped 
and the slave trade continued. Again in 1774, the Jamaica 
Assembly actually passed two Bills to restrict the slave 
trade ; but Great Britain again resisted. Bristol and 
Liverpool, which are now clamorous for the abolition of 
slavery itself, then found it suited their interest to peti- 
tion for the continuation of the importation of our African 
black brethren, and the matter being referred to the Board 
of Trade, that Board reported for the continuation of the 
slave trade; thereupon the Colonies, by the Agent of 
Jamaica, remonstrated and pleaded against the report on 
all the grounds of justice and humanity ; but Great Bri- 
tain, by the mouth of the Earl of Dartmouth, then Presi- 
dent of the Board of Trade, answered by the following 
declaration ; " We cannot allow the Colonies to check 
or discourage, in any degree, a traffic so beneficial to the 
nation." This declaration was made in 1774, and in the 
same year the Legislature of Massachusets was reproached 
with contumacy, and threatened with prorogation for 
framing an Act to prevent the Importation of Slaves. 



8 

Mr. Brougham, in his Work on Colonial Policy, re- 
marking upon the exorbitant influence of the Crown in 
the Colonies, says, Vol II. page 27, 

" Accordingly every measure proposed by the Colonial Legislatures 
€i that did not meet with the entire concurrence of the British Cabinet, 
■" was sure to be rejected in the last instance by the Crown/' " If 
" examples were required, we might," (continues this author,) " refer 
44 to the History of the Abolition of the Slave trade in Virginia. A 
" duty on the importation of Negroes had been imposed, amounting 
u to a prohibition. One Assembly, induced by a temporary peculi- 
" arity of circumstances, repealed this law, by a Bill which received 
11 the immediate sanction of the Crown ; but never afterwards could 
** the Royal assent be obtained to a renewal of the duty, although, as 
( * we are told by Mr. Jefferson, all manner of expedients were con- 
(t stantly tried for this purpose, by almost every subsequent Assembly 
u that met under the Colonial Government. The very first Assembly 
f* that met under the new Constitution, finally prohibited the traffic.' 

The Bahama Colonies alone were successful in abo- 
lishing the slave trade, (contrary to the wishes of Great 
Britain) by an annual clause in one of their money Bills, 
imposing on the traffic an import duty, amounting to a 
prohibition. But in order to enforce the then slave-deal- 
ing policy of the mother country, her Government pro- 
vided in the tenures by which lands are held in Jamaica, 
and in the other British West Indian Islands, that the 
holders should become proprietors of slaves ; inasmuch 
as the patents by which they hold such lands, require 
that they should possess a certain number of slaves, in 
proportion to the extent of their plantations, as by refer- 
ence to the patents will appear; and it was made an 
instruction to the Governors of the Colonies, not to 
assent to any law imposing any duties on the importation 
of slaves. 

When the emigrating part of the nation invoked the 
principles of justice and humanity against the robbery 
the other part was committing, the answer was, " We 
arc your parents, your refusal to obey us is contumacy " 



Thus the home-quitting part of the nation was com- 
pelled to submit to participate in receiving, or rather 
in purchasing the theft of the home-staying pan of the 
nation ; but though forced to acquiesce in the man- 
stealing, the home-quitting part did not participate in 
the contempt manifested by the home-stayers for the right* 
of humanity. 

The home-stayers forced the home-quitters to give 
their money for the slaves, whom the home-stayers sold, 
body and soul, requiring no covenant for good or merciful 
treatment to their fellow men ; all that was demanded by 
the European-willing-seller from the American-forced- 
buyer, was the purchase-money — the price of blood ; but 
the purchasers did not imitate the thieves in their entire 
disregard of humanity ; they passed laws to promote the 
civilization of the savages intruded on their country ; 
and, to ensure the protection and comfort as a fellow- 
man, of him whom the people of Britain had only regar- 
ded as a saleable animal — a legitimate article of barter. 

The robbery upon Africa — the tyranny over Jamaica — 
the atrocity of stealing men from one country and forcing 
them upon another, can give no just title to the spoiler 
to make laws for either of the countries, which have been 
made subservient to his avarice and villany. 

The abominations committed by one set of legislators, 
give them no right to legislate for another set of legisla- 
tors, whose country they had tried to debase for self- 
advantage — self aggrandizement. 

But it is said that the act of Protection gives the right 
of Legislation — let us admit this axiom — let us forget that 
we pay you a thousand times the expenses of your sup- 
posed protection — still we repel your claim under this 
pretence, to give us laws, by bidding you withdraw your 
soldiers. More than once, the people of Jamaica have 
told you, that they could guard themselves, and they have 

B 



10 

proved their sincerity oftentimes, by refusing to pay the 
expense of supporting your troops. Institutions which 
require a mercenary standing army to maintain them, 
ought not to exist. 

Again it is said, that the right to legislate for the 
Colonies, is founded on the expense they occasion the 
mother-country — that large sums are disbursed by the 
British Nation to support them, and that therefore, 
she has a right to see the money thus advanced ex- 
pended for her benefit. Let us admit this conclusion, 
also, when the premises are proved: it will be passing 
difficult to shew when, and for what, these largesses were 
given to Jamaica. She pays all her own public officers, 
excepting a Bishop whom Mr. Canning, by way of amusing 
the British nation, palmed off on Jamaica, and who be- 
ing perfectly useless there, will be recalled in due time, 
it is to be hoped, to England, to adorn one of those Sees of 
the holy mother church, which are always the reward of 
merit, humility and piety ; but never the prey of ambition 
and political tergiversation. All the liberality of the British 
nation to Jamaica, is in the honor the parent accords the 
daughter of fattening the parasites of the mother at the 
child's expense. The payers of every office of emolument 
are in Jamaica, the enjoyers of the proceeds are in En- 
gland, receiving the profits in person, and performing the 
duties by deputy. It can hardly be contended, that the 
enormity of pensioning off the aristocratic paupers of one 
country at the expense of another, gives the first a right 
of making laws for the second. If the grant of money 
from one part of the nation to another, does give, as is 
contended, to the part granting, the right of legislating 
over the part receiving, then Jamaica ought to make laws 
for England. 

The Jamaica legislature has been accused of intoler- 
ance in matters of religion ! Were it responsible to any 



11 

but its own constituents, it might contrast its liberality 
with the exclusiveness of other lawgivers. It took the 
lead in passing a law to abolish all civil distinctions 
between Jews and Christians — the government in Eng- 
land refused to sanction this law — where then was the 
intolerance ? In Jamaica the Catholic Relief Bill was 
passed without so much as a division of its legislature, 
while in England the same act of justice almost in- 
volved that country in revolution; and the bitterness 
of the party contests it created there, is still occasionally 
tasted. Here then again, which of the two is the liberal 
part of the nation ? the fact is, that in Jamaica the legis- 
lature troubles not itself with the religious or irreligi- 
ous opinions of any man, be his complexion or station 
w T hatit may: believers and unbelievers, Christians, Jews, 
Mahometans and Pagans, are allowed to go to or from 
Heaven as they please, only it refuses to allow upon the 
portion of earth under its guidance, the establishment of 
a parsonarchy — (of a government of priests, like that of 
other countries, levying tithes and taxes, and enforcing 
their payment by brimstone and fire) — enthralling the in- 
tellect and debasing the soul more than slavery does the 
body* Britain left it to Jamaica to civilize the men she 
stole, and in pursuance of this duty, Jamaica seeks their 
benefit — not by preventing the preaching of honest-mean- 
ing men, but merely by refusing to allow adventurers from 
Liverpool or Bristol to sell religion for money as they 
formerly did the stolen Africans. 

As a proof that liberal feeling is characteristic of the 
Jamaica legislature, an enactment passed by them the 
last sessions may be adduced, by which that numerous 
class of men which Britain sold as slaves, and which Ja- 
maica has spontaneously made free, was admitted to an 
equal participation of immunities with the white inhabi- 
tants. 



12 

In performing this act of justice, the Colonial Legisla- 
ture of Jamaica acted from practical experience, refusing 
to listen to the theories of prejudiced or inexperienced 
men, such as the author of a Work, usually entitled 
Brougham's Colonial Policy, who says, in his first 
volume, page 78, 

" Besides, the political character formed by the West Indian Policy, 
M is extremely favourable to principles of independence, without any 
" tendency to excite turbulence. The distinction of colour is a badge 
" common to all the whites, and lifts them above the great mass of 
" the community. It is an order instituted by the arrangements of 
" nature , and marked by palpable and indelible symbols.'* 

Waving the question of the right of the home-staying 
part of the nation to legislate for the home-leaving part, 
let us next consider what good such interference, if per- 
mitted, could produce. Never having resided in Jamaica 
— knowing nothing of the habits and ideas of the great 
bulk of its population, nor of the peculiar state of society 
in which they live — a state utterly distinct from that ex- 
isting in Europe, and from European ideas, it is impossi- 
ble for the British parliament to make laws for Jamaica, 
with the remotest chance of benefitting any portion of 
its inhabitants. Neither is there any just cause for sup- 
posing that a body of men, who for their nation's gain, 
robbed an entire continent of as many of its inhabitants 
as they could catch, and sold them as slaves, have so far 
outstripped in justice those who never forgot the rational 
equality of man, as to be entitled to supercede the legis- 
lation of the more humane nation. 

It is but natural to believe, that the legislators who 
were awake to justice and mercy when others were torpid 
to every feeling but the profits of man-stealing, will not 
now slumber in the course of human amelioration, when 
all civilized nations are emulating each other in the race. 

I am not — I never was an advocate for slavery — the 
system is abhorent to every manlv feeling — it is de- 



13 

grading to human nature, whether in its undisguised 
form in Jamaica, or in its insiduously masked character 
in other countries, where it assumes the semblance of 
freedom, in order the better to trample on the rights of 
man; centering the object of the real, tho' disguised solici- 
tude of the rulers, in the welfare of a few haughty Aristo- 
crats — sacrificing the happiness of the greatest number 
to the pomp of a few, persuading a miserable starving 
people, that they are the freest of the free, (when in 
fact, they are governed by laws, in the making of which, 
they had no participation;) and assuring them that they 
are the happiest of the happy, and ought to be grateful 
and contented, when in truth, but a scarcely life sustain- 
ing portion of the food they produce is allowed to pass 
into their mouths. Slavery called slavery in Jamaica is 
bad — man was not born to be the property of man — Sla- 
very called freedom elsewhere is worse, because less 
susceptible of remedy. The labouring many were not 
created to toil in famine to satiate the idle few. But slavery 
is fast working its own destruction in Jamaica — indeed, 
if what are styled constitutional principles were to be re- 
cognised there, the slaves might now be called freemen. 
Having property independent of their master, and always 
the means in their own hands of redressing their wrongs, 
by striking work, (and thus ruining the proprietor's manu- 
facture — a remedy they are well aware of, and do not 
hesitate to employ), they are, under a correct definition 
of words, less slaves than the peasant who has no pro- 
perty, and whose labour is sold by the parish to defray 
a part of the poor rate, for supporting his wife and chil- 
dren. Between selling a man, and selling a man's labour, 
there is but a nominal difference. 

The local legislature of Jamaica has shewn that it has 
the desire of promoting, and certainly it has the best 
means of ascertaining those measures which arc most be- 



14 

neficial to their dependents, and least injurious to every 
class — most likely to promote the general happiness — 
most effective to abolish a system of injustice created con- 
trary to their wishes, and alike pernicious to all. 

It has been admitted that England has no right to 
interfere in the legislation of Canada, as that country is 
not represented in the British parliament,* yet it is 
alleged that the same rule does not apply to Jamaica, 
because slavery exists there. Let this rule and its excep- 
tion be fairly analysed: — it provides that the home-stay- 
ing part of a nation has no right to legislate for the home- 
quitting-part, till the home stayers have robbed and 
plundered some other country of its inhabitants, and com- 
pelled the home quitters to buy them as slaves : the 
home-stayers all the while pocketing the purchase-money, 
and declaring the traffic to be most beneficial, till interest 
no longer blinding their mental vision, they discover 
that robbery, kidknapping and man- stealing, are not 
public virtues; — tardy repentance at last visits their con- 
sciences, and they manifest their regret for their crimes, 
not by restitution to the wronged foreigner, but by endea- 
vouring to plunder their innocent countryman. 

Before you can with justice exercise, and before, in 
fact, you will be allowed to exercise your supposed right 
of legislating for Jamaica, her people must have at least 
a share in framing the laws by which she is to be governed 
— and that by her own Representatives, according to even 
your own principles. 

In your Parliament the people of Jamaica are in no 
wise represented — the haughty aristocrats who have pro- 
perty in that Island, and who may obtain seats in the 
House of Commons, have no community of interest, no 



* Lord Brougham when H. Brougham, Esq. 



15 

identity of feeling with the resident inhabitants of Ja- 
maica ; to these aristocrats, what may become of the 
people of that country is and ever must be matter of per- 
fect inconsequence, so long as they can, by any other 
means, retain in England- what they call their station in 
society : that is, live among your aristocracy, imitate 
their vices, and surpass their follies. To those who have 
ever been taught to regard the many of mankind, as 
created to pamper the pomp and pride of the few, the 
welfare of an unknown population, whether black or 
white, must be of no regard, so long as their own wants 
are supplied, their own selfish caprices gratified. 

Now that you recognise the principle that your people 
have a right, really, and without fiction, to elect the re- 
presentatives which are to prescribe the rule of govern- 
ment to all, on what other principle do you contend that 
you are justified in attempting to bind us by laws, to the 
making of which we are not parties r because yours is the 
mother country ! I answer again — then Saxony or West 
Friesland ought to prescribe laws for England. 

Is the argument you adduce that of the strongest ? the 
Russian logic with Poland ! then is reasoning of no avail; 
we must repel force by force. You laugh at resistance, 
but we have considered our position, and our chances of 
success. We know that the majority of the wealth of our 
country belongs to absentees, who spend it in England ; 
and that, regard for the benefits you receive from that 
wealth, will prevent you from risking it by driving us to 
extremities : We know that a large portion of your manu- 
factures is consumed by us — that your sailors are em- 
ployed by us — that your merchant's property is embarked 
with us : We know that you are fearful of destroying 
these interests ; and that you have more actual dread of 
the colision than we have. Knowing human nature, as 
history has exemplified it in the British Administration 



16 

of Colonial Jurisprudence, our dependence is on your 
self interest, not on your generosity. 

You may Legislate for Jamaica as you did for America, 
that is, give a Bill a first, a second, and a third reading, 
refer it to a Committee, engross it, pass it ; but for all prac- 
tical purposes it will be absolutely worthless ; regarded 
in the Country over which it usurps unjust authority, 
regarded as much, and no more regarded, than the Ordi- 
nances of Charles the Xth now are in France, or the 
Statutes of Parliament regulating Tea and Stamp Duties 
were in the United States of North America, in 1775. 

Your Bill will be met in the first instance by passive 
resistance — no Jury will convict upon it, and should there 
be any attempt made to use force in the execution of its 
provisions, it will be considered as illegal force, and re- 
pelled by other force to death, while the person repelling 
it will be admired as the asserter of his Country's rights. 

We have well and accurately viewed our situation — it is 
similar to that of the Colonies of North America in 1775, 
when their protests against aggression were called contu- 
macy, and their threats of resistance ridiculed as contempt- 
ible. Our situation is the same, precisely the same, as was 
that of the Southern part of those Colonies, when an attempt 
was made to instigate the men who had been robbed 
from Africa, to murder the men in America upon whom 
they had been forced ; this attempt was made by those 
who had stolen the Africans ; it was considered a beau- 
tiful and effectual stroke of policy; we remember the 
failure of this attempt, and we feel that we have deserved 
not less than the Inhabitants of the Southern part of the 
now United States of America, the attachment of those 
whom British barbarity put under Colonial protection. 

If the attempt to impose Foreign Legislation on us 
were made by men who had always sacrificed the interest 
of themselves to the greatest happiness of the greatest 



17 

number of their own countrymen — if it were made bj 
men who had disinterestedly striven to drive tyranny, 
mis-rule, poverty and wretchedness from their own land, 
doing justice to their benevolent views, we could not but 
love them ; yet though desirous to co-operate with them 
in the noble work of benefitting mankind, we should 
oppose their usurpations, because every Country, what- 
ever may be its extent, has a natural exclusive right to 
make Laws for its own government. 

If we should thus resist the interference of the disin- 
terested and the able, how much more strenuously ought 
we, and will we, oppose the usurpations of those, who 
seeking to make Laws to bind an unknown land, have, 
as facts now existing prove, and as their own confessions 
admit, been unable to secure the well being of their own 
country — been unsuccessful in promoting the happiness 
of the useful classes of their own Society ! 

If we were satisfied that the object of those who desire 
to Legislate for us was pure, we would seek every means 
of conciliation, consistent with our own rational indepen- 
dence as reasoning men ; but we are opposed to men of no 
such character. Every grasping lawyer, intriguing for a silk 
gown ; every place hunting vagrant, prowling after an 
office for himself or his son, calumniates the West Indian 
Islanders, and pretends to sympathy for black labourers 
in a distant region, heedless of his own noble Country- 
men's misery, but trying under the semblance of philan- 
thropy to advance his own selfish ends. Others originally 
slave owners, who sold their human property for money, 
now seek, at our expence, to acquire popular applause, 
and to intrude themselves into the ranks of the liberators 
of mankind. 

With even that portion of self-legislation left us, and 
which you now seek to usurp— still whithersoever we 
turn we find ourselves and our country a continual sacri- 



18 

fice — we find our Executive encouraged and aided by His 
Majesty's Ministers in deluding and swindling, not our 
Legislature alone, but also your Parliament, by evading 
its Statutes in order to plunder our Country, and when 
the villany is discovered, odium is unjustly cast by the 
powerful fraud-committer on the unprotected fraud-dis- 
coverer. The public servants are detected conspiring 
together to defraud their master the Nation; and when 
the unjust Steward's accounts are exposed, and his pe- 
culations made manifest, instead of being ashamed of his 
mis-deeds, he complains that his private secrets are 
violated — not matters exposed relating to his wife and 
children, but concerning the whole community, whose 
goods were in his keeping, and which his privacy 
was seeking to embezzle, just as if one servant had a right 
to be offended because he was not allow r ed to conspire 
with another servant to rob their master privately ; and 
as if a committer of larceny had reason to complain that 
his secrets were violated, when the articles he had stolen 
were taken from his person. The difference in the cases 
is, that the common thief injures one man, the public 
robber a whole Nation — the first does only partial damage, 
the second universal injury. 

In 1825, the Governor of Jamaica, and the then Secre- 
tary of the Colonies, conspired first to deceive the Legis- 
lature of Jamaica, and then to evade a Statute of your 
Parliament, commonly called Lord Shelbume's Act, pas- 
sed to prevent certain offices of trust and emolument 
continuing as they then were, and despite of the Statute 
still are sinecures. I honestly came by the correspon- 
dence of these conspirators. 

Some of the passages relating to one of these con- 
spiracies are as follows : — 

Cevernor of Jamaica's Letter to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 
Dated 8th of June, 1825. (Private) 
" I Have had the honour to receive your Lordship's Letter 



19 

14 of the date stated in the margin, (22nd March) acquainting me, that 
u in consequence of the death of Lord Braybroke, the office of Provost 
u Marshal General in this Island has devolved on Mr. John Augustus 
44 Sullivan, to whom the appointment had been granted in reversion, 
44 by Letters Patent, dated in May, 1804. 

" When the account of Lord Braybroke's death was received 
44 here, it became necessary to appoint a Provost Marshal to act until 
44 the King's pleasure should be known. This appointment has of course 
" become void, by the production of his late Majesty's Patent to Mr. 
44 Sullivan, and as this office is one of great importance, in which every 
" possible advantage will be taken in case of any irregularity in the 
44 mode of appointment, I have been induced to avail myself of the 
u professional talents and experience of His Majesty's Commissioners 
44 of Legal Enquiry, who have, in the most obliging manner, favoured 
" me with their opinion on the subject. There were two modes of 
44 proceeding; one, to consider this case as coming under the Act of 
44 Parliament, 22. Geo. 3. cap. 75. ; and the other, to treat it in the or- 
44 dinary mode of supplying vacancies, without reference to that Act. 
" Lord Shelburne's Act seems intended to give the Governor and 
44 Council, a power to visit offences committed by Patentees with for- 
" feiture and removal ; and as the great objecfofthat Act is to enforce 
44 the residence of Patent Officers, wilful absence is one of the offences 
u specified therein ; however, no Patent Officer can be considered as 
44 guilty of wilful absence, unless he shall have been previously pre- 
" sent in this Island ; and it would be straining a penal law to a most 
44 unjustifiable extent, to charge an Officer with wilful absence because 
44 he does not arrive here at the precise time that his Patent is promul- 
44 gated. Under all circumstances it has been determined to appoint the 
44 present acting Officer, stating in the preamble, that the temporary 
44 appointment occasioned by Lord Braybroke's death, had become 
44 vacant, in consequence of Mr. Sullivan's Patent ; and that, as Mr. 
44 Sullivan had not yet arrived, it had become again necessary to ap- 
44 point a person to act as Provost Marshal, until further provision 
44 be made therein. This appointment meets the wishes of Mr. Sulli- 
44 van's Agents, and will leave him at liberty to make such arrange- 
44 ments for the management of his office in future, as he may judge 
44 expedient ; and the temporary appointment can be put an end to 
" at any moment. 

44 As Mr. Sullivan's Patent has not been made use of here, he 
" of course is not recognized as Provost Marshal until he actually 



20 

" assumes his office in person ; and ail that can be done is, that the ■ 
u Governor should be desired privately, to appoint such persons from time 
a to time, as may be suggested by the Patentee, This has been the case 
" with Mr.King's appointment of naval Officer : whenever a change in 
" the acting Officer has been anticipated, a request has been made to the 
" Governor, through the Colonial department, to appoint some person or 
" persons, in succession, nominated by Mr* King. The same mode was 
* l also adopted in the case of the Clerk of the Courts 1 Office, during the 
u life of the late Sir Evan Nepean, and since his death has been pursued 
" towards his Son." 



Letter, dated 27th June, 1825. (Private.) 

u Referring your Lordship to my Letter of the 8th instant, 
M on the subject of Mr. Sullivan's office of Provost Marshal General 
" in this Island, I think it proper to apprise your Lordship that there 
" is a disposition to take up this question when the Assembly meets, 
" with a view of forcing Mr. Sullivan at least to assume his office, for 
" the purpose of rendering him responsible for the conduct of those 
u who may officiate for him here. At present the only security the 
" public have, is in the acting Officer ; which, in an office in which sueh 
" large sums of money are received and paid, is not deemed sufficient. 
" During the life of Lord Braybroke, the Island had his security to 
" resort to, as well as that of his lessee; and large sums of money 
" were actually recovered from his Lordship for the defalcation of his 
" lessees. I think also, that the same disposition exists in regard to 
" the Clerk of the Courts' Office, the Patentee of which has not as- 
M sumed his office in person. It would only be necessary for Mr. 
" Sullivan ar.d Sir Hyde Molintux Nepean, to come here and assume 
" their offices, after which they might obtain leave of absence in the same 
u manner as took place in regard to the late Sir Evan Nepean, ,r 

Letter dated 18th of April, 1825, states that if the Nominees of 
Mr. King should become absentees or die, Mr. Francis B. Atkinson 
was to be the Naval Officer. 



Letter, dated 14th February, 1826. 

" Mr. John King was appointed since the Act, and of course 
u cannot execute his office by deputy; but he has been permitted to be 

u absent frvin his duty, and his No7ninee has always been appointed." 



21 

The object of the Act of your Parliament, as well as of^ 
ours, was thus not only defeated, but the evil the law 
sought to remedy, was increased. Before that Act exis- 
ted, the placeman, though he performed no duty, yet was 
responsible for his deputy ; under the new law and the 
conspiracy to defeat it, the sinecurist still performed no 
duty, and was made wholly irresponsible. 

This is but one of the many frauds privately committed 
on Jamaica by the confidential conspirators. 

Their avowed object was to beguile our legislators, — 
to deceive them at home, — to misrepresent and to betray 
them abroad. At the instant a confidential communica- 
tion to England announced the real object of our execu- 
tive, another communication, not less confidential, was 
made to some member of our Legislature, assuring him 
that no such object was contemplated as that which in 
fact had been distinctly promised in the first confidential 
communication. 

At one time, under pretence of a loan for the benefit 
of the Island, the real object was to procure funds to ren- 
der the executive entirely independent of our people : 
at another time we were assured that it was not the in- 
tention of His Majesty's Ministers to invade our property, 
when at the same instant a confidential communication 
guaranteed the execution of the disclaimed project, when 
a convenient opportunity could be found to propose it. 

I found myself in circumstances exactly the same as 
those in which Franklin had been placed just before the 
American War; I acted as he did, I unmasked the frauds 
as he had done, to undeceive the injured people, and to 
enable them to obtain justice. Acting as Franklin did 
I had the honor of encountering similar injury. He 
had been for his patriotism insulted before the Privy 
Council, by M. Wedderbum, afterwards Lord Lough- 
borough ; J was traduced by the Under Secretary of 



22 

State for the Colonies, Mr. Robert Wilmot Horton, who 
using the opportunity afforded him by his place, held me 
up to public hatred for detecting the frauds. As well might 
a robber complain that his private correspondence was 
violated, when his conspiracy to commit house-breaking 
is detected. If to stop burglary in a single dwelling be 
meritorious, a fortiori it is so, to prevent the plundering 
of a whole Nation. It must not be forgotten too, that the 
very parties to this confidential affair, themselves did not 
hesitate in 1824, to use the private letters of other indi- 
viduals to effect their own purposes. 

The plea that confidential communications are exempt 
from the public's scrutiny, can not avail the defen- 
dants in this case. When the Athenians intercepted 
the correspondence of King Philip of Macedon, they 
returned the letters of his wife Olympia unopened, but 
subjected the confidential dispatches of his Secretaries of 
State to a rigid examination : Is it replied, "but Athens 
" was at war with her enemy," I rejoin, " and so was I 
u with the betrayers of my country." 

We see our Laws passed after the mature deliberation 
of ourselves, who do know the condition of those for whom 
we are Legislating, subjected to the approval or disap- 
proval nominally of the King in Council, but in reality 
of a Law Clerk in the Colonial Office, young Mr, Stephen, 
a single irresponsible individual, perfectly ignorant of our 
society and our avowed enemy. When I applied to Sir 
George Murray, then in the Colonial Office, I obtained 
an audience with more trouble than would have cost 
me a dozen interviews with the King of the French. 
I applied to him relative to a Law which I myself 
had prepared, and which was of great importance to my 
Country. His Excellency knew nothing about it, and 
commenced to talk to me about Haiti and Cuba — at last 
he avowed he was not aware of the Law, as the Law Clerk 



23 

had not made his Report, and then, with his usual urbanity, 
bowed me out of his office ; the Law Clerk refused to see 
me or answer any questions, and I was left without the 
means of ascertaining whether a particular Law of con- 
siderable importance to myself and every man in Jamaica, 
was rejected or not. Thus our Laws are in the absolute 
discretion of a boy — of a writer in a public office. 

The solemn and just complaints of our Legislature are 
ridiculed, and we are replied to by the irony of some wool- 
sack-hunting lawyer, that he has a great respect for all the 
colonies, from Jamaica to the Virgin Islands; our appli- 
cations for redress are either totally disregarded or else 
merely acknowledged by some subordinate officer, while 
the anonymous complaints and mis-representations of irre- 
sponsible individuals, have been made the subject of seri- 
ous and tormenting inquisition by the principal Secretary 
of State for the Colonies : the avowed enemies of Jamaica 
have been selected to decide upon the questions in which 
she is interested, and her right to Legislate for herself 
has been openly invaded, contrary to reason, in violation 
of your own Acts of Parliament, and in manifest defiance 
of every principle of justice. 

The British Parliament has always been virtually 
allowed to exercise the power of Legislating for the whole 
State on matters of trade, (though relating to the Colonies) 
and on all other subjects implicating the general interests 
of the Empire. 

When your popular representation is so amended 
that each Member of Parliament is the organ of the feel- 
ings of his Constituents in the United Kingdom alone, 
the Colonies will be left without even the shadow of Re- 
presentation — in consequence, they must be subjected 
to the continued injury resulting from the popular feeling 
being roused against them — a feeling which would be 
re-echoed in Parliament, and the Colonists left without 



24 



remedy— without protection — their interests scoffed at — 
their properties, lives, and liberties at the discretion of 
the popular ebulition of another people, distinct from 
them in their political situation — alienated from them by- 
fraudulent misrepresentation. / 

Under such a state of things the Colonies must soon 
cease to exist — they must cease to be Colonies — or cease 
to be at all. 

Your Petitioner trusts that before your Honorable 
* House proceeds to Legislate for Jamaica, you will 
refer to the proceedings of your predecessors recorded in 
history. Place-hunting lawyers may burlesque resistance 
and tell us of the Virgin Islands — all this was said in 
1775. 

Your Petitioner for all the reasons he has adduced, 
pray^Jnat your Honorable House will not attempt to 
pass any Laws relating to the internal concerns of 
Jamaica. 

And further he prays that in any Bill which may be 
brought into your Honourable House for the noble pur- 
pose of amending the popular Representation in Parlia- 
ment, you will provide that Jamaica, and every other 
British Colony, may also be fairly Represented in your 
Honourable House, by delegates to be freely chosen by 
the subjects of His Majesty, residing in his Possessions 
beyond the Seas — or else that they should be declared 
free and independent of a Government, in which they 
can have neither directly nor indirectly any participation, 
and under which they would be, to use the language of 
Sir William Jones, in a condition of actual, though dis- 
guised, Slavery ! 

And your Petitioner shall ever pray, &c. 

AUGUSTUS HARDIN BEAUMONT. 

FINIS. 



